The Gospel & Salvation: Saving Faith Part 2

Faith – Part 2

What Does Faith Do?

Selected Scriptures

 We are in a series that really goes back to the basics. It is never a bad idea to go back and review the fundamentals. World class athletes become world class because they master the fundamentals. When it comes to the gospel and the work of salvation, we must carefully examine the basics because if we don’t have the basics right, we don’t have the results we are seeking. It is one thing for a world class athlete to loose a game. He or she likely gets to compete again another day. If we mess up on the issue of the gospel and the work of salvation, the consequences are eternal, and tragic.

It is obvious from the word of God that some will miss the point of the fundamentals of the gospel and the work of salvation. Jesus speaks in Matthew 7 of what He would say to people who had prophesied in His name, and worked many miracles, and cast out demons. He would tell them to depart because He did not know them, and that they were workers of lawlessness. These are words no one wants to hear when we stand before the Lord of creation in judgment.

I’m not going to review the entire series. We have been in this series since the first of January. The first few months of the series focused on the sin problem which is the reason we need the work of salvation. The gospel is the good news that there is a solution to the problem of sin and the solution is Jesus Christ. In recent weeks we have been answering the question, “What must a person do to be saved?” There is no better place to find that answer than in the Scriptures. The Bible is the only book that reveals the way of salvation. Jesus is the Savior of sinners, so naturally His message would be of utmost importance in learning how one comes to salvation. Jesus began His ministry preaching the gospel and in Mark 1:15 Jesus called those who heard Him preach the gospel to “repent and believe in the gospel.” So we have been looking at what it means to repent. We spent a couple weeks learning the biblical doctrine of repentance. Last week we started looking at what it means to believe. 

We established the inseparable relationship between believing and faith from the etymology of the two words. To believe is to have faith. To have faith is to believe. Belief is not just the acknowledgment of the historical facts concerning Jesus. True saving faith involves embracing Jesus in the fullness of who He is. 

What I attempted to do last week was to make sure we understand what faith is. We saw the best explanation of faith as it is described in the life of Abraham. Abraham believed God. His faith was credited to him as righteousness. His faith saved him. Abraham was saved because he believed God for the impossible. God had promised a son and even though Abraham was 100 years old and as good as dead, and Sarah was 90 and past the years of childbirth, God had promised a son of that union. God told Abraham to look at the stars of heaven and know that so would his descendants be. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

There is faulty faith which does not save the sinner. Because we are saved by grace through faith alone, it is imperative that we be able to determine what saving faith looks like. There are many who “believe” in Jesus who believe they are eternally secure in salvation, even though there is nothing in their lives that upon which one could build an argument to defend such a claim. If they were on trial for being a Christian, there would not be enough evidence to support a conviction.

It is possible that you could have heard last week’s message on faith, and grown in your understanding of what faith is, and still have questions regarding the reality of saving faith in your own life. It is entirely possible to know what something is and to never experience the reality of it in our own lives. I know what a million dollars is, but I will never experience what it is like to have a million dollars in my possession. I fear that there are many people, even within Christian circles, who know what faith is, or they know something about faith, but they have never known the experience of genuine saving faith.

The Apostle Paul had the same concern. This is why Paul strongly exhorted the Corinthian church to examine themselves. He writes these words in 2 Cor. 13:5. “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” At the heart of this test is not the fact that one believes in Jesus. Paul does not tell us to test ourselves to see if we believe in Jesus. He said to examine ourselves to see if Christ is in you. At the heart of this test is the reality that Jesus is in you. If you have not Christ, you fail the test.

When we speak of Christ in you we are speaking of the presence of the Spirit of Christ, or the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to be with us and in us. John 15:16-17 says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Jesus was going to depart. This was upsetting to the disciples. Jesus promised another Helper who would never leave them. He would be with them forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. The world does not know the Holy Spirit. We know Him because He comes to abide with us and be in us at the moment we trust Jesus Christ in salvation.

As we test ourselves to see if Christ is in us, what we are looking for is the influence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the one who claims faith in Christ. There are professors, or those who profess to know Jesus, and there are possessors, or those who possess the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ dwells in the true Christian. The Holy Spirit does what Jesus said He would do. He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He guides unto all the truth. The Holy Spirit is a divine person possessing all the attributes of God, and He dwells in us. How could a Divine Being who possesses the attributes of God, including God’s power, this being the Holy Spirit, dwell in us and leave us unchanged? In other words, how can we be saved, and have Christ in us, and not know it, or not be able to see the evidence of it through the work He does in us?

Turn to 2 Peter 1:1-4. We find in verse 1 that Peter is writing “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours…” The word translated “same as” denotes equality, sameness. Peter knew his faith was real and he was confident he was writing to those who had received a faith like his. Peter tells us in verse 3 that this faith results in a divine power that grants to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Peter understood that those who had saving faith possessed the power to demonstrate the results of the work of salvation. It was inconceivable to Peter that someone could profess faith in Christ and not be radically different as a result of having trusted Christ for salvation. 

I want to show you this from Hebrews 11. This is a chapter devoted to the subject of faith. In this chapter the writer of Hebrews does exactly what we are trying to do in the message from last week and this week. Last week we saw what faith is. This week we are looking at what faith does. Verses 1-3 tell us what faith is. Beginning in verse 4 we begin to see example after example of faith. These are people who did exactly what they knew God wanted them to do.

Verse 4 describes Abel and his better sacrifice.

 Verse 5 tells us that Enoch was taken up because he was pleasing to God.

 Verse 7 – Noah “in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household…”

 Verse 8 – Abraham, when called, obeyed by going to a place he was to receive…

 Verse 17 – Abraham again, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

In reality, the rest of Hebrews 11 is just example after example of people whose faith resulted in obedience. There is no such thing as a saving faith that does not produce evidence. One of the reliable evidence of saving faith is obedience to God.

So for the next little while I want to focus on the difference faith makes in the life of the true Christian. If a person claims faith in Christ but their lives fail to manifest any evidence, I think it is safe to assume that they have received a faith of a different kind, not the same kind as that which Peter had received. The Bible gives us too much evidence that saving faith is life transforming faith. Saving faith does something in us. There is no such thing as a faith that we embrace that does not make a radical difference in the way we live.

This is true because saving faith is inseparable from spiritual birth. Remember the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. Jesus said in John 3:3, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There is no salvation unless there is a spiritual birth. Think about this. There may be some people who claim faith but their faith does not show up in the way they live. However, there is no such thing as a birth that does not reveal itself in obvious ways. Donna and I kept Oakley yesterday. She was born about five months ago. Her birth is a doubtless reality. Spiritual birth should also be a doubtless reality.

Spiritual birth makes us to become the children of God. John 1:12-13 states, “But as many as received Him (Jesus Christ), to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Those who experience this spiritual birth become the children of God by virtue of this birth. It results for those who believe in Jesus. Those are born of the will of God. To receive this spiritual birth is to become alive spiritually and to live spiritually means that life will be obvious. Death is very obvious isn’t it? Life is just as obvious. Being born to spiritual life means this birth manifests itself.

Listen to the words of Titus 3:5. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Salvation brings divine cleansing from sin and the gift of new life, spiritual life. This new life is the result of being born of God, or born of the Spirit of God. Spiritual birth results in the renewing by the Holy Spirit. The word “renewing” describes a transformation that makes us different.

Turn with me to Romans 6. I have told you already of the importance of the book of Romans to a proper understanding of the gospel and the work of salvation. Romans 6 gives us insight into the transformative work which results from faith in Christ. In Chapter 5 Paul explains that justification, or being made right with God, is by grace through faith in Christ. As he comes to chapter 6 Paul begins to address some of the practical ramifications of having been justified by grace through faith. In a nutshell, the truth of Scripture is that those whom God justifies He also sanctifies. Faith in Christ results in our sanctification.

At the risk of insulting some of you who have a well-developed understanding of these things, I want to make sure we understand these terms. We have already talked this morning about regeneration. Regeneration is the work of God that produces the spiritual birth Jesus described to Nicodemus. To be regenerated is to receive the divine nature and divine life of God. This happens when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the believer. This is received by faith in Christ.

This results in our justification. Justification is the judicial declaration of God whereby He declares those righteous those who, through faith in Christ, repent of their sins and believe in the gospel. Justification is apart from any works of righteousness on our own, but involves genuine faith in the fact of Christ’s substitutionary death in our place. We believe that God placed our sins on Christ and punished Him in our place, and then clothes us in the righteousness of Christ so that we stand before Him with a righteousness not of our own, but the righteousness of Christ being credited to us.

Inseparably linked to God’s work of justification is His work of sanctification. The word “sanctify” means to “set apart.” At the moment of our salvation, when we experience regeneration and justification, we are also set apart and identified as “saints.” This aspect of sanctification is positional and instantaneous and should not be confused with the progressive work of sanctification. This has to do with our standing, not our present condition. 

When we come to Romans 6 we are learning what Paul teaches about the work of progressive sanctification. In this work of God the life of the believer is brought closer to the likeness of Christ through obedience to the word of God. This is empowered by the Holy Spirit who dwells in the believer. The result of progressive sanctification is that the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness and conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like Jesus. Romans 6 is Paul’s explanation of the doctrine of progressive sanctification. If we are to examine ourselves to see if Christ is in us, we can and should use the instruction of Romans 6 and see if what Paul describes here is true of us. Let’s read the first 14 verses of Romans 6. 

In the first four verses Paul anticipates an objection to the doctrine of justification by grace along through faith alone. He expected someone to say that if it is by grace, or God’s unconditional goodness, then a person can increase in sin so that grace abounds more and more. Paul would have expected this objection from his Jewish audiences who believed that justification was not by faith, but by strict adherence to the Jewish Law. To them, legalism epitomized righteousness. To the Jew, if God accepted the sinner on the basis of grace alone through faith, then the sinner, by sinning more, would allow God to demonstrate even more grace.

Paul’s response in verse 2 is, “May it never be!” “God forbid” is the way the KJV translators put it. The idea that sin in the life of a believer might bring glory to God was an unacceptable notion for Paul. So Paul goes on to explain what happens when we are saved by grace through faith. He asks, “How shall we who have died to sin still live in it?” Think about that question. How can anyone who has died still live in anything? Death is obvious. Anyone who has died to sin can no longer live under the dominion of sin. Paul’s point in this passage is clear. Saving faith delivers us from the dominion of sin. Faith doesn’t simply result in us believing something. Faith does something. Faith delivers from the dominion of sin.

How does this work? There are three aspects of this work described here. The first aspect involves “knowing.” Faith brings us to the place of knowing stuff. I’ve seen the grandpa tee shirts that say, “I’m a grandpa. I know things and I fix stuff.” Faith brings us to the place of knowing stuff. Look at verse 6. “Knowing this…” Faith brings us to an understanding of a vital spiritual reality. We come to know “that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”

Paul’s point here is that the justified saint is brought to the place of being a sanctified individual. By faith we know we have been united with Christ in His death and with Him raised from the dead so that we too might walk in newness of life. (v. 4) When we are regenerated and justified we are not only declared righteous, we see the work of God that motivates us to begin to cultivate righteousness in our lives. Our death to sin means that we do not live anymore in the dimension of sin or under sin’s rule. Sin is contrary to our new disposition. This is why John writes in 1 John 3:9, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed (God’s seed) abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Our death to sin is the result of our union with Christ. To know we have been united with Him in His death is to understand that we have died to sin. If we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we also know we have been united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection. Being in Christ, and Christ being in us, as Jesus promised, means that we live in union with Christ. This is why one of Paul’s favorite expressions for the Christian is that we are “in Christ.” 2 Cor. 5:17 tells, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things come.” The whole purpose of our union in Christ’s death and resurrection is that “we too might walk in newness of life.” (v. 4)

In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes of his own growth in understanding and the subsequent change. He writes, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Paul understood himself to have been crucified with Christ. The old Paul was dead. He had become a new creature in Christ. Christ was now living in him. And the life he now lived in the flesh he lived by faith in Christ.

By faith we understand that our life is not an amended or improved old life, but a divinely bestowed new life that is of the same nature as Christ’s own life. By faith we know (verse 6) that “our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin.” Does this mean that we will no longer sin? It does not. But sin is no longer master over us. Verse 7 states, “for he who has died is freed from sin.”

Sin is not annihilated. But sin has lost its control over us. Obviously we still struggle with sinful propensities. Death to the sinful self does not mean death to the flesh and its corrupted inclinations. But the tyranny of sin has been nullified. Our human weaknesses make us capable of succumbing to temptation. But our desire will not be an ongoing desire for sin. It will be a desire for a righteousness that glorifies God.

There are three key words in Romans 6. The word “know” is found in verse 3, verse 6 “knowing”, and verse 9 “knowing.” Faith brings us to understand the truth that we are no longer what we used to be. We come to know that we are not remodeled sinners but reborn saints. This gives us the assurance that we no longer live under the tyranny of sin. The birth of faith is knowledge of these spiritual realities.

The second key word is “consider.” The KJV translates it “reckon.” It is found in verse 11. Based on the truths we “know” and have come to believe by faith, our next step is to “consider” or “reckon.” In verse 11 we read, “Even so…based on what we “know”...consider (reckon) yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The word “consider” is an accounting term meaning “calculate” or “figure.” In this context this takes the believer’s faith beyond mere knowledge. To consider means to have an unreserved confidence in the reality of the truth. Having this unreserved confidence, we affirm the truth from the heart, rather than just knowing something intellectually. The result is that we apply the truth to our lives.

To “consider” ourselves to be dead to sin is to believe in such a way that we act on the knowledge. By faith I consider myself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This will become my motivation for living as if this is true. Genuine saving faith becomes our motivation for living as though the truth of salvation is real.

The third key word is found in verse 13. It is translated “present” in the NASB and “yield” in the KJV. Verse 13 says, “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” 

Yielding goes beyond what we understand with the mind, and consider with our hearts, it involves the will. Yielding to God rather than to sin requires a will that is energized by faith. This is an act of trust, or faith. 1 John 5:4 tells us, “This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”

Faith enlightens the mind with what we know and believe by faith. Faith encourages the heart to trust in the truth we have come to know. Faith energizes the will to take the steps of faith that will lead us to obey. This is what faith does.

The whole point of what I have tried to show you today is that genuine saving faith is a faith that does something. It is far more than simply believing something. This is the point James makes in James 2. We won’t go there because we are out of time, but James challenged those who claimed to have faith, but there was no evidence in their lives of the difference faith makes. Their faith was void of any evidence of the good works of faith, therefore, James warns, that kind of faith is dead. It certainly would not be the same kind of faith as that which Peter had.

What kind of faith do you have? Do you have a faith that believes in the historical facts about Jesus, but has not transformed you? Or, is your faith something that has produced a dramatic difference in the way you live? Let’s pray.